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Introducing new Google Assistant experiences for families
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
Whether at home on a snowy day or getting together with the family over the holidays, your Google Assistant provides an easy way to learn and have fun as a family. Today, we’re introducing new experiences, designed specifically for families with kids so they can learn, play and imagine together.
The Wiggles - Choose your own adventure with Emma
Families will be able to join The Wiggles, from the hit TV show on Treehouse, for a choose your own adventure, a new custom Wiggles experience commissioned by Google exclusively for the Assistant. Follow Emma on a fun, Wiggly adventure as she travels through town to find friends to bring to her concert. Along the journey, kids can dance, play games and listen to fun songs with The Wiggles. You can go on the Wiggly adventure simply by saying “Hey Google, talk to the Wiggles” on any Google Home, Google Home Mini or compatible smartphone.
Available in English only.
CBC Kids News
Now, you can listen to the latest news stories relevant to Canadian kids brought to you by the CBC Kids News team. Just say "Hey Google, Play CBC Kids News," for daily local, national, and international stories that are relevant to Canadian kids with a focus on media literacy.
Available in English only.
Boukili Audio
Boukili Audio, from
TFO
, is an interactive activity that tests listening and comprehension of stories on animals, nutrition, music, travels and a ton of other captivating subjects, all in French. After listening to stories, Boukili Audio puts your child's skills to the test with a series of multiple choice questions to evaluate their French language comprehension and their memory, all while having fun. Just say “Ok Google, Parler avec Boukili Audio” to choose from over 120 interactive books, over 70 of which are exclusive to the Assistant.
Available in French only.
Call Santa
Just in time for the holidays, your Google Assistant can connect families to the North Pole, where Santa is busy rehearsing for a musical concert. Just say “Hey Google, call Santa,” to get in touch with St. Nick himself.
Available in English only.
Hatchimals Character Alarms - coming in 2019!
Coming soon, from
Spin Master
, families can ask the Assistant on their Google Home to set a Hatchimals alarm and bring a dose of EGGcitement to their daily routine! The alarms feature Hatchimals music along with fun facts, jokes, challenges, and words of inspiration from Penguala, Draggle, Cheetree, and Puppit,- the heroes of “Adventures in Hatchtopia,” a new short-form animated series available on YouTube Kids! Just say “Hey Google, set a Hatchimals alarm.”
Available in English only.
Below are additional experiences for families—just start with “Hey Google.”
Play π―
"Play Lucky Trivia for Families”
“Play Musical Chairs”
“Play Freeze Dance”
“Let’s play a game”
Learn π
“Tell me a story”
“Help me with my homework”
“Tell me a fun fact”
“How do you say “Let’s have crΓͺpes for breakfast” in French?”
“What does a whale sound like?” (try other animals!)
“What does a guitar sound like?” (try other instruments!)
Entertain π
“Give me a random challenge”
“Sing a song for me”
“Give me a tongue twister”
“Tell me a joke”
Perfect for the Holidays π
“Tell me a Santa joke”
“What's your favourite Christmas cookie?”
“Tell me a holiday fact”
With their parent's permission, children under 13 can also have their own personalized Google Assistant experience when they log in with their own account, powered by
Family Link
(Not available in Quebec). Family Link helps parents manage their child’s Google Account while they explore. And with Voice Match, your family can train the Assistant to recognize up to six voices.
So round up your family and say the magic words— “Hey Google, I want to do something fun.”
Posted by Lilian Rincon, Product Management Director, Google Assistant
See the light with Night Sight
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Pixel’s camera is designed to help you capture life’s best moments effortlessly. With features like HDR+, Portrait mode, Top Shot, and Super Res Zoom, Pixel 3 uses computational photography and machine learning to help you capture stunning, creative and even
professional photos
. All you need to do is press the shutter button.
Because life’s best moments aren’t always perfectly lit, we developed Night Sight, a new feature for the Pixel camera that helps you capture vibrant and detailed low-light photos without a flash or tripod. Over the next few days, Night Sight will be coming to the front and rear cameras on all three generations of Pixel phones.
iPhone XS with SmartHDR (left), and Pixel 3 with Night Sight (right).
Why photography is difficult at night
The key ingredient for a photo is light. When it’s dark, cameras compensate by spending more time capturing light and increasing their sensitivity to light, often adding unwanted motion blur and noise to your photo.
Flash helps by adding light to the scene, but it awkwardly blinds your friends and can annoy others around you. Not to mention, it usually creates unflattering photos and isn’t even allowed in many places where photography is permitted. Flash only brightens nearby subjects and isn’t useful for landscapes or faraway objects.
Tripods stabilize the camera, allowing it to capture more light, but they’re bulky and impractical for everyday use. By enabling longer captures, tripods may also introduce unwanted motion blur from moving objects.
How Night Sight works
Night Sight constantly adapts to you and the environment, whether you’re holding Pixel or propping it on a steady surface. Before you press the shutter button, Night Sight measures your natural hand shake, as well as how much motion is in the scene. If Pixel is stable and the scene is still, Night Sight will spend more time capturing light to minimize noise; if Pixel is moving or there’s significant scene motion, Night Sight will use shorter exposures, capturing less light to minimize motion blur.
Night Sight can capture more light when Pixel and the scene are still. Photo by Narayan Hegde (Pixel 3, Night Sight).
If your subject moves during the capture, Night Sight can adapt to prevent a modest amount of motion from ruining the shot. Instead of capturing one bright and blurry photo, Night Sight captures an equal amount of light over a burst of many photos that are dark but sharp. By merging this burst, Night Sight prevents motion blur and brightens the photo, giving you a bright and sharp photo.
Night Sight is robust to moderate levels of hand shake and scene motion. It merges many dark but sharp photos into one bright photo
Night Sight is designed to capture true-to-life photos, adapting to the various lighting conditions you’ll see at night. Using machine learning, Night Sight balances the colour of your photo, so that objects show their natural colour at night.
Night Sight uses a neural network to balance colours.
For more details on how Night Sight helps you capture vibrant and detailed low-light photos, head over to the Google AI blog.
How and when to use Night Sight
If you’re taking a photo in low light, Pixel will suggest using Night Sight. You can enter Night Sight by tapping this suggestion or manually navigating to the mode. After you tap the shutter button, try to hold still until Night Sight finishes capturing the photo.
Night Sight on Pixel 3 XL While Night Sight was designed to excel in dimly lit conditions, it won’t work in complete darkness. You don't need much light—but you'll still need some.
Here are some tips for taking great low-light photos:
Hold the camera steady. If you can, try propping it against a stable surface.
If you’re taking a photo of someone, ask them to hold still for a few seconds before and after you press the shutter button.
Try tapping on a bright edge to help your camera focus when taking photos in very dark conditions.
Make sure the camera lens is clean. It can accumulate oil from fingerprints, creating blurry and soft photos.
Avoid pointing your camera at bright light sources, which may cause unwanted reflections in your photo.
Night Sight will be rolling out over the next few days with an update to the Google Camera app. Share your photos using #teampixel and #nightsight, and check out some Night Sight photos in this Google Photos
shared album
.
Posted by Alexander Schiffhauer, Product Manager, Computational Photography
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